Projection for Theatre - Position and Type?

Zebetz

Member
I am looking to price projectors for a permanent install as a front projector to fill the cyc in a 400 seat house. It's a long throw - roughly 146' from the spot tower, or 100'ish from the catwalk to the cyc. Proscenium is 44' across and 20' high with a 54' wide cyc. Another possibility would be to mount a short throw to one of the battens in the flyloft and thusly avoid shadows in the projection, at least to a certain extent. We already have a pretty nice rear projector for a downstage screen, but it's not full width, and is of course useless if the midstage traveler is closed. Just dipping my toes in the water here with regards to industrial/institutional type projectors and genuinely looking for any advice as to where to even start my research. Budget is not tiny, but also not limitless. Any help will be much appreciated.

Wx
 
We mounted our projector behind the pros and then matched the lens to the throw and size required. This means that projection is downwards, quite steeply, and so cast can get reasonably close to the cyc before shadows become a major problem. We have an NEC projector, but it's showing its age and there a re newer, better alternatives now.
 
What kind of room are you in that you have 146' from your spot position in a 400-seat house?

Probably need a floorplan and maybe a section to be able to give you the best advice. Your cyc may be 54' wide, but how much of it is visible to the audience if you have a 44' wide proscenium and a deep seating area? Similarly, depending on where you put the projector, it may or may not be able to fill all 20' high. Borders/masking can be an obstruction if you're hanging on-stage --- only real way to avoid that is to shoot from the back of the room with a long throw lens.

Is this for film, presentations, and/or digital scenery? If all of the above -- which is the highest priority and which are more secondary purpsoes?
 
What kind of room are you in that you have 146' from your spot position in a 400-seat house?

Probably need a floorplan and maybe a section to be able to give you the best advice. Your cyc may be 54' wide, but how much of it is visible to the audience if you have a 44' wide proscenium and a deep seating area? Similarly, depending on where you put the projector, it may or may not be able to fill all 20' high. Borders/masking can be an obstruction if you're hanging on-stage --- only real way to avoid that is to shoot from the back of the room with a long throw lens.

Is this for film, presentations, and/or digital scenery? If all of the above -- which is the highest priority and which are more secondary purpsoes?
Hi all,

@MNicolai So - I was reading a grossly incorrect spec - you were of course correct in your dismay. The ACTUAL distance from spot tower to upstage wall is 98'6.25". As for what it will be used for - hopefully both digital scenery and presentations. It's a very new space and we're still learning what our mainstays will be in terms of work on stage, but it's safe to say there will be plenty of school plays as well as conference-style presentations, and both applications will likely need equal weight.

@Jay Ashworth - your off-thread suggestion of swapping our rear projector to a front projector position is not a bad one - I'd still like to find out if we can have our cake and eat it too (e.g. have both front and rear projection).

Thanks in advance everyone and sorry for the delay in my response!

Wx
 
Depending on mounting and cabling, you might be able to swap it back and forth, though that ladder'll be a bitch.
 

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